Just try to imagine if you (alone) were trapped in the technology of 30 years ago while the world advanced, how would you cope? Other than being healthier from the amount of physical exercise to lift, pull, push, chop, and others such as manual work you would have to engage in; apart from the absense of increased radioactivity from the latest electrical and electronic devices and accessories within your intimate space; separate from the increased pollution due industrial and commercial development; plus the stress associated with information bombardment, tell me how would you cope............
Already you may be thinking ‚’I dont know, that is such a long time ago’, as most of the U20 year olds tend to describe any period thats over 5 years as ‚’ancient’. But 30 years ago, the advanced technology of the time made life as comfortable as we enjoy ours now, And although I am tempted to explore the wide gamut of impact of today’s modern technology, I will restrict it for this article to the effect of time.
Already my information is dated, but 30 years ago, it would be fresh for publication to the next day’s readership. Then , articles and other items for the print media were written in minutes and took a day to submit the piece or pieces. Today, information like the latest scientific technology buzz concept is moving in nano-seconds.
So, all that said, let’s take a look at some of the more common domestic activities which we take for granted:
30 Years Ago... Over 4 hrs to hand-wash a pan load of clothes
Present... 1 hr to machine wash 2 pan loads of clothes
30 Years Ago...15 mins to reheat dinner via steam or on the stove (before the use or prevalence of microwave)
Present... 2-3 mins to reheat dinner in microwave
30 Years Ago...1 week for fitting and making of dress suit
Present... (1 hr to decide which dres suit to wear and) 1 minute to purchase it
30 Years Ago...10 hrs to travel via public transport from Kingston to MontegoBay
Present... 3.5 hrs to travel via public transport from Kingston to MontegoBay
30 Years Ago...14 days for delivery of local postal mail
Present... 4 seconds for delivery of email
30 Years Ago...1 week or more (dependent on the use of film) to access photo from photographer
Present... 1 second to access photo from your digital camera
30 Years Ago...Weeks and months for transport of sea cargo goods
Present... Days to transport sea cargo goods
30 Years Ago...Availability of news, 3xs per day
Present... Availability of news every second
30 Years Ago...Stenographic copying & dot matrix printing took minutes
Present... Laser printing & copying take seconds
Can you think of other examples in which technology has shortened the processing time for our convenience? Please share it.
